Shadow Priest need help

Hey everyone.

First off, i'd like to clarify a few things:
- This is an alt, as much as i'd love to clear DS10 on it weekly, this will take a while.
- I have been playing priest in many fashions, mostly healing and pvp healing though.
- I used rawr, reforgelite, the guide on this forum and EJ forum to get where i am.
- I got my 2 main nukes bound to mousewheel, rest to keys close to wasd.

All that said, i have the feeling that whatever i'm doing wrong, is rotation or insight wise.

I try to refresh my SW:P when i get all my buffs running, but i am slightly unsure what buffs i should be looking at for this.

So with all that said, i am doing between 15 and 17k dps without 'full' raid buffs, and about 20-22k with raidbuffs.
I have however seen a lot of people with somewhat similar gear pull closer to 30k dps with raidbuffs, i'm unsure why and would love the help.

You don't want to refresh SW: P by other means than using mind flay. It is exactly the same wether you decide to recast it or refresh it with mind flay. So never-ever re-cast shadow word: pain on the target unless there isnt one existing already or if it's about to expire and you wont be able to refresh it with mind flay in time.

- I would suggest you to cast shadowfiend instantly (after dots are up) if you are using T12-2set both in your opening sequence and in your priority list.

- You don't want to cast mind blast before casting archangel. That is plain stupid -_-

- If you have T12-4set you want to prioritize mind blast before shadow word: death.

The basic 5-step list of how to play a shadow priest.

1) Always keep 100% uptime up on dots - very easy on patchwerk fights

2) Mind blast on cooldown. Track orbs but don't let them interfere too much in your rotation choice on single target fights, simply because you will be using mind blast on cooldown anyway.

3) Use shadowfiend and archangel on cooldown unless there's a purpose in delaying them. Waiting 1 or 2 seconds for mind blast to get off cooldown before using archangel will often be a smart move.

4) Track empowered shadows and dark evangelism for better multidotting and aoe. Try and ALWAYS refresh VT and DP (in between 2nd to last tick ofc) when you have empowered shadows up (except on pull). Still keep 100% dot uptime though - but it may be worth to cast VT and DP 1 tick earlier if your ES is fading.

5) Learn to clip mind flay in order to use any of the spells higher prioritized. Don't use a non-clipping mind flay macro, and feel free to clip before last tick.

Took a look at your armory.
I would probably try to get another part of the T12, for setbonus. And a enchant on shoulder, ofc.
And at some places you are reforging spirit > crit? Instead of just replacing int+spirit gems with pure int?

I try to refresh my SW:P when i get all my buffs running, but i am slightly unsure what buffs i should be looking at for this.

This here is part of the issue. You never want to refresh SW:P unless it falls off. When you Mind Flay it will auto-update. You want to refresh VT / DP when you get orbs up / trinket procs / bloodlust.

Usually at the start of the fight I'll use Mind Blast as soon as I get an orb up so the DoT's get the buff. After that I try to wait till Mind Blast has 3 stacks before using it (unless Empowered) is about to fall off.

For the most part it sounds like you are refreshing the wrong DoT's. Refreshing the correct ones should net a good amount of DP increase.

To add what everyone else is saying about Shadowfiend at the start. Do not use it immediately. Wait till Power Torrent procs at the start (usually 5-8 seconds in). With power torrent up your fiend gains a damage boost that will help your dps as well.

You do realize when you go Archangel -> Mind Blast -> DoT refresh you are actually losing DPS. Because your DoT's gain % increase per tick of Evangelism. So unless you go Archange -> Mind Blast -> Evangelism x5 -> DoT Refresh you'll be losing the gain from Evangelism on that set of DoT's.

Thanks a lot for all the tips.
Rotation wise, i was obviously missing a couple of key parts of it.
Gem/shoulder enchant, i'm aware of this, havent gotten the new shoulder enchant yet, no time to log on since it dropped. Gems are atm near 400g each, so wanted advice before spending thousands of gold.